Corporate Bonds - Article Archive

Telecoms giant Altice announced a €2.8bn-equivalent dual currency high yield bond on Tuesday through Goldman Sachs. Along with the proceeds of the new notes, the group will spend €1.5bn to cut group leverage — a crucial move, as telecoms firms grapple with the high capital costs of preparing for the rollout of 5G technology.

Triple-B rated corporate debt has grown more than most other rating bands in EMEA in the past decade, according to Moody's, and now accounts for a record share at 41%. This level of the market has expanded, against a backdrop of generally somewhat declining credit quality.

The retail industry is in deep trouble, especially in the UK, where every other week it seems a storied High Street name tumbles into financial distress. Private equity sponsors, which owned many of the collapsed names, take much of the blame, but they were also victims of structural changes that battered the industry.

The arrangers of Reliance Industries’ debut Schuldschein have sent investors a statement saying that though the oversubscribed order books closed on Monday, they have extended the timetable for settlement to allow some investors “additional time to firm up their orders”.

Tottenham Hotspur, the north London football club, is considering selling US private placements to partly pay off bank loans generated by the construction of its new stadium, several market participants have said. Unlike their US equivalents in the NBA and NFL, professional clubs from the UK are a rarity in the market, as the threat of relegation makes them too perilous an investment to some investors. Silas Brown reports.

Fitch has downgraded Tewoo Group, a Chinese state-owned commodities trader, by six notches, citing the company’s weak liquidity and high leverage. The Tianjin government’s financial ability to support its related entities was also brought into question.

Dometic Group, the Swedish company that makes appliances for mobile homes, started the week by launching a €250m seven year high yield bond that was tightly priced, perhaps partly because the credit market was otherwise fairly quiet.

JP Morgan is marketing a single-B rated high yield bond to fund the acquisition of developer CG Gruppe by Consus Real Estate, a further sign that the bond market is wide open and keen to take down more aggressive, highly levered deals.

A substantial and growing proportion of asset managers are asking big oil companies to realign their businesses with the Paris Agreement by moving away from fossil fuels, a survey released on Monday has found. But only a few have set deadlines or thought about what to do if the oil companies fail to comply.

Fines of up to €11.2bn could be on the way for European carmakers due to emissions regulations, according to a report by Moody’s. And the debt markets are not impressed by additional gloom the new rules give the embattled auto industry.

Eir, the Irish telecoms company, has won strong demand and tight pricing for its combined bond and loan deal, allowing it to increase the size by another €100m — and pay out a larger dividend to its owner, groups controlled by French billionaire Xavier Niel. One of these groups, Iliad, has just emerged from a costly fight for rights to the 5G mobile spectrum in Italy, leading it to consider asset sales and other routes to raise cash.

The European high yield market is experiencing a post-Easter resurrection, with six new issues announced after the London market returned to work on Tuesday. While some of these trades were the lower-rated acquisition bonds investors having been crying out for, the bond market is still largely stuck with deals too long, too tight, too risky or too large for first lien loans.

Chinese local government debt issuance ramped up in the first quarter of 2019, with investors at home and abroad more enthusiastic about offshore bonds from local government financing vehicles (LGFVs). But they continue to be selective over which credits they buy — just as more deals are set to be launched, writes Addison Gong.

Saudi Telecom Company is embarking on investor meetings to market a debut benchmark dollar Reg S/144A sukuk. However, investor enthusiasm for Saudi corporate bonds may have been dented as the $12bn bond Aramco printed a fortnight ago remains wide of reoffer.

The balance of supply and demand in Europe’s corporate bond market has favoured issuers this year, leading to a remarkable tightening of spreads, and is set to stay that way for two more weeks, bankers believe, as issuance will be intermittent.

Despite the roadshows crowding high yield bond markets this week, Netflix could not help but draw most attention from investors. Its $2.2bn-equivalent euro and dollar issue on Wednesday was increased and is said to have been three times covered. While the company has $10bn of capital market debt outstanding already, it owes more than $27bn long term to its content providers.

Wendel, the French investment group, issued a €300m no-grow on Monday. This was a typical size for the issuer, but it was its first issue for two and a half years. It will use the money to exercise options to call and make whole on its 2020 and 2021 bonds.

After weeks of thin issuance in European high yield, six deals were announced on Tuesday, of which two were true buyout financings, rather than the double-B refinancings that have dominated the market this year.

Tesco has launched a comprehensive liability management across eight bonds, to be funded by a new issue from its recently updated MTN shelf. The move comes as the UK-based supermarket group teeters on the verge of a full upgrade to investment grade status.

Schuldschein buyers fear a further round of price tightening is nearing after Continental and Lufthansa both closed transactions that were three or four times oversubscribed. But as investor orders were substantially scaled back in both instances, some are considering inflating their bids to guarantee their desired amount.

Dual currency high yield bonds to fund EG Group’s purchase of Woolworth’s petrol stations in Australia hit screens on Tuesday morning, the long-anticipated second slug of a financing part-placed in Australian dollars. The all-bond issue flies in the face of recent market trends, which have seen comparably-rated loans price well inside EG’s initial price thoughts.

Structured issuance in Formosa format has tumbled amid a wider decline in structured MTN volume year to date, which Dealogic data shows has fallen from $9.98bn across 213 trades at this point in 2018 to $5.08bn across 119 deals this year.

The European Central Bank has indicated that it is looking into how to mitigate the costs that years of negative interest rates have exacted on banks. That has led some in the market to bet that it will introduce tiered interest rates at some point. But analysts are not convinced that tiering deposit rates will help weak lenders — or make any difference at all. Mike Turner reports.

Low market volatility, a fall in Formosa issuance and the introduction of alternative risk free rates have all led to a sharp decline in structured, callable and floating rate MTN issuance, said MTN bankers.

German airline Lufthansa took a daring step in mid-March and decided to launch a Schuldschein transaction exclusively via the digital platform VC Trade. It has proved a shrewd move and will likely be game-changing for VC Trade in the battle for digital dominance.

Bonds of Intralot, the Greek gambling technology company, fell on Tuesday, after an earnings release that disappointed investors and confirmed that it was in breach of leverage covenants in its revolvers. High yield research firm Lucror Analytics argued that it was now ‘imperative’ for the company to renegotiate these terms.

A bid by VC Trade, an emerging technology platform for the Schuldschein market, to overcome resistance and cement its position in the market appears to have paid off this week, as a deal for Lufthansa executed solely via the platform succeeded handsomely. This could prove a turning point for the use of tech in the Schuldschein sector and perhaps other corporate debt markets. Silas Brown reports.